1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to Internet telephony and, more particularly, to data packet network telephones.
2. Related Art
Shown in FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic illustration of a typical known communications system where computers 14, 16 are connected by network cables to a packet data network, for example Ethernet backbone 18, and telephones 2, 4, 6 are connected by circuit switched telephone wires to a telephone system 8 and private branch exchange (PBX) 10. Communications involving computers 14, 16 occur by the exchange of data packets through a packet network having many routers, network cables, and optionally public switched telephone network (PSTN) 12. Communications involving telephones 2, 4, 6 occur by establishing a circuit connection between calling and called telephones. Having two separate network systems requires maintaining two systems. Further, since a typical office has at least one computer and one telephone, the associated wiring for each office must be able to support both packet and circuit communications and requires that each office have wiring to support both packet and circuit communications. The complexity in the wiring and the maintenance of two network systems may be great and inefficient.
Recently, voice over packet network (VOPN) phones that use a packet network to send and receive data packets of voice phone calls have been introduced. VOPN technology has simplified the wiring in a typical office such that the same type of network cable may be used for both the computer (e.g., for data processing) and the phone. In a typical office setup, both the VOPN phone and the computer use the same network connection to the data packet network. That is, all data packets to and from the computer and all data packets to and from the VOPN phone are processed by the same network connection. Since data packets to and from the computer are typically much larger than data packets to and from the VOPN phone, processing of the larger data packets may delay the processing of the data packets to and from the VOPN phone. One problem associated with the delay in processing the VOPN data packets is that a user of the VOPN phone may experience poor voice quality. Poor voice quality may be very noticeable to a user of the VOPN phone as echo, talk overlap, pauses or silences in communication. The poor voice quality may make VOPN phone technology unattractive for some users. Further, the poor voice quality may be annoying and frustrating to a user of the VOPN phone. Accordingly, a need exists for a means for processing data packets over a packet network that improves voice quality in a VOPN phone.